Leg Sorness (Read 575 times)

I trained and ran a marathon over a year ago. During the training I had a shin splint in my left leg which lasted for about a month. After the marathon which was on October 1, 2005, I took almost a whole month off before running again, only running a 5K race at a marathon pace a week later. Since then, my whole left leg, from the knee down has given me constant sorness/stiffness. It starts behind and lower left side of my left knee, down my calf and into my ankle which is sore on the outer and back side. It feels like its more of a tendon or muscle problem than a structural one. My entire calf is sore and stiff. When I try to stretch it, I can really feel it, like it hasnt been stretched for a month. I don't have health insurance and I'm in college, which means I dont have any money to pay Dr. Bills. Does anybody have any suggestions for me? I've tried icing it, doing light weight workouts, running on it again, etc..nothing seems to work. I havent ran on it for nearly 4 months now.

Hrm. It really does sound like a case for a sports doc. You can go to Student Health... who'll probably tell you to take 6 months off running...
How about massage, gentle stretching twice a day, and walking?
Also, since you're studying nursing, you should have access to a bunch of people who've got medical backgrounds. Someone in there should be studying PT or sports med, right? Hopefully? Make friends...

What you're describing sounds similar to a problem I had a while back - a big Evil Knot in My Calf. Granted, your pain sounds like it's spread over a greater area, but if it feels more muscular than structural I'd try to get a massage for it. I tried icing it, self-massage, compression, etc - the only that worked was getting a deep tissue massage specialist to beat the crap out of my calf for a good 15-20 minutes since with self-massage I couldn't work it deep enough.
The massage hurt like hell but three days later I couldn't feel it anymore and was running again.

Elly

posted: 11/30/2006 at 6:06 PM

I am recovering from a similar problem, although mine makes my foot go numb. Deep tissue massage is probably the way to go and although it hurts it seems to be helping. Unfortunately this means taking time off running (I spend lots of time spinning instead, which is BORING! but better than doing nothing). It would be worth paying money for a professional opinion though, it'd be better to get it sorted so you can run properly again.

I am recovering from a similar problem, although mine makes my foot go numb.

I have this problem and I am very suspicious that I have chronic compartment syndrome. With research I haven't found any other explanations so consistent with my symptoms (shin splints, tight calves, then the foot goes numb, usually my right more than my left).